Compiler for 64bit

Ok, so I *thought* it would not be all that hard to get a 64bit compiler (well a compiler that generates code for a 64bit processor) -- but things are harder than my initial research suggested.

For linux this is easy -- there are lots. Just about every major linux compiler has the ability to produce 64bit code... but can any of them produce Windows executables while running under Linux?

For windows things are not so easy. Now I don't really want to buy a professional edition at the moment (I am not working in the C++ world so this would really be a waste of money). So I was looking for free compilers. Now the VC++ 2008 may work once I install the platform development kit... maybe...

I looked into MinGW but really don't understand what (of the 25-30 options) I need to download. I know that GCC has 64bit support, but I don't know if any of the MinGW versions are new enough to have that incorporated. I really don't know anything about the world of MinGW. I *think* that I need to install MinGW and then update the pieces-parts...

Does anyone know of another compiler for the x64 platform?
Has anyone gone though and installed MinGW to support x64?

Replies To: Compiler for 64bit

Re: Compiler for 64bit

Posted 20 March 2008 - 09:11 AM

I see I am a lone trooper on this!

Well I have downloaded the win SDK for win64, and it *seems* to have a command line compiler capable of generating x64 code. Right now I am trying to get Eclipse to use it... I thought this would be easy since eclipse just uses make... but I was oh so wrong.

When I try to compile at the command line (basic hello world program) I get a ton of warnings I have never seen before about iostream and exception handling, and then the linker can't find any libraries (even though I told it where to look).

Re: Compiler for 64bit

Re: Compiler for 64bit

Posted 20 March 2008 - 09:25 AM

I may just end up working in linux... The problem is that I am interested in doing graphics and VMWare really does not have very good support for OpenGL/DirectX so I really wanted to work on the windows system.

all I have to do is get 1 darn compiler working... well... then I have to get OpenGL or DirectX to work with the compiler (that should not be as hard).